NFL tries to tackle social networks

The National Football League has become the latest sports body to try to tame the use of social networks.

The NFL, which has an official Twitter account, issued a new edict this week banning “coaches, players and football operations personnel” or anyone representing them from updating their status on Twitter, Facebook or other social media during games and up to 90 minutes before and after.

The ban also includes halftime, but players and other NFL personnel are free to tweet on their own time.

Oakland Raiders fans may be thinking this is the league’s latest slight against the Silver and Black, especially since three Raiders are prolific Twitter users – Kirk Morrison (kirkmorrison52), Thomas Howard (Mr53) and Darren McFadden (dmcfadden20).

Yet the league also throws the flag on the media’s use of social networks to post updates during games. Here’s part of a statement from the NFL:

“Internet sites may not post detailed information that approximates play-by-play during a game. While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount (e.g., score updates with detail given only in quarterly game updates) so that the accredited organization’s game coverage cannot be used as a substitute for, or otherwise approximate, authorized play-by-play accounts.”

Understandably, the league is trying to protect its multimillion dollar TV and radio contracts. But critics say the policy could prevent traditional media from using live blogs, Twitter or other technologies that are fast becoming standard tools for journalists.

And it comes in an era when the term “citizen journalists” means anyone with a blog, Twitter or Facebook account and a smart phone can send game updates from anywhere at any time.

Last month, the Southeastern Conference, a powerhouse in college athletics, announced a wide-ranging policy that would have banned fans coming into stadiums from using Twitter, Facebook or texting.

That policy generated a storm of criticism and, after further review, the SEC quickly issued a revision that OK’d the use of social networks for everything except posting videos of game action.

An SEC spokesman said the conference’s intent all along was to protect its lucrative new TV and online streaming contracts with CBS and ESPN.

The original SEC policy was “clearly unenforceable,” said Jeffrey Modisett, an attorney with Bryan Cave LLP. “Are you going to ban all cell phones from the stadium? What are you going to do when you catch people on a social network site?”

“All of these entities that are thinking of banning social networking sites need to learn how to adapt instead of just reflexively banning the technology,” Modisett said. “You can’t ban Facebook and Twitter any more than you can ban the post office.”